Like many meeting professionals, independent event consultant Christa Hovis sees creativity as her stock in trade. So, a critical step in the early stages of any event is communicating her ideas to clients.
Lately, artificial intelligence tools have made a considerable impact on that process.
Hovis, who calls herself “The Event Diva,” has decades of experience with meetings and incentive-travel programs. Until recently, concepting was a time-consuming process that involved searching out images online that came close to what she was thinking or creating sketches from the ideas in her head.
“Prior to using A.I. tools in my design-concepting phase, it could take me as long as three weeks to complete a creative design,” said Hovis. “Now, with A.I., I have cut my detailed-design time by half. I can take what I am thinking about, convey it into an A.I. tool, and the output is the A.I. version of that design.”
Using A.I. effectively has meant mastering the craft of writing effective prompts. “As a creative, I needed some time to learn how to take what is in my head and convert it to simple phrases of text,” she says. “It definitely takes some playing around with.”
A.I. images have been especially effective for driving conversations about client expectations. Below are examples of three gala-event entrances she designed with A.I. using the event’s color palette and incorporating a sponsor logo. (Logo has been removed for confidentiality.) Without a lot of extra effort, Hovis is able to present clients with options to review for low-cost, mid-level, and over-the-top designs:
“I can then share with the client what is possible creatively,” she says. “From there, the client's feedback informs me as to the direction I need to go as far as pricing out the concept.”
Hovis has had success working with A.I. image generators Midjourney and DALL-E. “The more advanced platforms, which you pay for, can take a lot of detail in the prompts and provide great visual outputs,” she says. Her best advice for working with these A.I. platforms: Remember to save. She notes that some of the platforms reset if you don't save, and both your prompts and images will be lost.
For more stories about how meeting professionals are using A.I., read A.I. Power Users Share Their Planning Stories
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